It might be hard for some of you to believe, but this upcoming season marks the Ottawa Senators’ 20th in the NHL. Let that sink in so some of you can now dwell on how old that makes you feel.

The Sens have big plans to help commemorate the season including wearing a special heritage jersey (which will look like the one seen at Icethetics) on opening night against the Minnesota Wild. Getting a hockey team back in Ottawa was a big deal for everyone involved and while the Sens have just one Stanley Cup finals appearance back in 2007 to hang their hat on and an avoided bankruptcy thanks to the big money of Eugene Melnyk buying the team, the Sens are doing something else on opening night that’s rather curious.

When Ottawa holds their home opener on October 11 against Minnesota, they’ll introduce the players that suited up in the team’s inaugural game. As the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch points out, it’ll be a special night for the Sens.

All the players from the roster of the franchise’s inaugural game are being invited back to be introduced before the home opener, Oct. 11 against the Minnesota Wild. That should also cut down on the boos directed Dany Heatley’s way.

It seems like only yesterday that captain Laurie Boschman and his new teammates scored a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 8, 1992 at the Civic Centre.

“It does bring back a lot of memories,” said Boschman. “The important thing is that going into their 20th year, this team has been — if you take away the last couple of years — their record has been equal to anybody in the NHL.

“It’s been wonderful to be a hockey fan here and to raise three boys that are Senators fans. That’s what’s really neat.”

In that first game, the newly born Senators beat Montreal 5-3 on the strength of two goals from Doug Smail along with goals each from Neil Brady, Ken Hammond, and Sylvain Turgeon. Getting the win for the Sens that night in goal was Peter Sidorkiewicz while coach Rick Bowness led the way on the bench.

The win would indeed be special because they wouldn’t win another game until late November. That Senators team finished the year with a 10-70-4 record. Defenseman Norm Maciver led the team in points with 63 while Turgeon led the team in goals with 25. Poor Peter Sidorkiewicz would end the season going 8-46-3 with a 4.43 goals against average and .856 save percentage. While that Sens team wasn’t the worst team of all-time, they rank in the top five as one of the worst in NHL history. Hey, at least Mike Peluso was in the top five in the league in penalty minutes with 318. Yeah, he was just fifth that year.

Things have gotten better for Ottawa in recent years as they’ve been able to make the playoffs more often than not, but after a brutal season last year the fans are feeling a bit down. Captain Daniel Alfredsson is at least on the quick road to recovery to start the year, but if Sens fans can take solace in anything, it’s that no matter what, the current Senators can never be as bad as the original team.

Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche: MacKinnon’s MVP campaign got a serious boost on Sunday, as he picked up two goals and an assist in a win over the Detroit Red Wings. The Avs forward is now riding a 12-game point streak. He better start making room on a shelf for a Hart Trophy.

William Karlsson, Vegas Golden Knights: Karlsson continues to be one of the biggest surprises of the 2017-18 season. His natural hat trick against the Flames puts him at 39 goals on the season. Who would’ve thought that we’d be talking about him as a 40-goal scorer?

Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning: Even though MacKinnon is rolling right now, Kucherov won’t go away quietly in the race for the MVP crown. The Lightning forward picked up two goals in Sunday’s win over the Oilers. Kucherov has 36 goals and 93 points in 70 games this season.

Alex DeBrincat, Chicago Blackhawks: DeBrincat scored his third hat trick of the season in a losing effort. The rookie has 25 goals and 45 points in 73 games this season. He has a chance to score 30 this year.

Alex Pietrangelo and Vincent Dunn, St. Louis Blues: The Blues came away with a huge comeback win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Patrik Berglund scored the game-winner in overtime, but Pietrangelo and Dunn each had four points in the victory.

Patrik Laine, Winnipeg Jets: Laine has been a scoring machine of late. He found the back of the net twice in Sunday’s win over the Dallas Stars. He’s now scored 43 goals in 72 games this season. Laine’s picked up at least one point in 15 consecutive games.

The St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks have played games with more significance, but that didn’t take away from the excitement of St. Louis’ 5-4 win in overtime.

‘Hawks forward Alex DeBrincat opened the game with two first-period goals before the Blues managed to tie the game in the second frame thanks to a pair of power-play tallies by Alexander Steen and Vincent Dunn, who also assisted on Steen’s marker.

The Blues thought they went ahead late in the second, but this goal was called back:

Chicago went up 3-2 heading into the second intermission after David Kampf put them back ahead.

Dunn collected his third point of the night when Vladimir Sobotka scored the equalizer at the 15:24 mark of the third period, but again, DeBrincat scored just over one minute later.

Alex Pietrangelo, who assisted on St. Louis’ first two goals, managed to tie the game with 18:38 remaining in the third period to force overtime. Dunn registered an assist on the game-tying marker to give him four points on the night.

Pietrangelo then helped set up Patrik Berglund‘s game, so he also finished the game with four points when it was all said and done.

Here’s the OT winner:

Despite being sellers at the deadline, the Blues now find themselves just one point behind Anaheim for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. St. Louis has four more regulation/overtime wins than the Ducks, which could be key down the stretch.

After missing five games with a lower-body injury, Ben Bishop made his return to the Stars lineup on Friday night against Ottawa. Unfortunately for Bishop, he seems to have run into some more injury trouble tonight.

The veteran netminder was hurt after he made a fantastic glove save on Jets forward Bryan Little on Sunday night. The Stars Twitter account already confirmed that he suffered a lower-body injury and that he wouldn’t be returning to the game.

The Boston Bruins have a plethora of young players coming through the pipeline, including Ryan Donato who they signed to a two-year, entry-level contract on Sunday night.

The Bruins drafted Donato in the second round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. The 21-year-old spent each of the last two seasons at Harvard. In 2017-18, he finished the year with 26 goals and 17 assists in 29 games with the Crimson.

Donato also represented the United States at this 2018 Olympic Games, where he had had five goals (tied for the tournament lead) in five games.

The team has already announced that he’ll join them right away. He’s eligible to suit up in tomorrow’s game.

“It came together in pretty short order,” GM Don Sweeney said, per the Bruins’ Twitter account. “We had always been committed to providing the opportunity to Ryan if and when he decided to leave school…I think it was an opportunity on both sides to explore with Ryan and see where he’s at.

“He’s a kid that’s got a confidence about himself, a talent level, and he’s got some details he’s gonna have to work on – all young players do. But he’s a player that has hard skill. We’re looking forward to having him…get immersed and get a taste.”